2013 Belgian Grand Prix

Lotus say there’s a “good chance” they will use their Drag Reduction Device for the Belgian Grand Prix but it is not certain to make an appearance.

“We haven?óÔé¼Ôäót made a final decision yet as to whether it will be deployed,” said trackside operations director Alan Permane, “but we?óÔé¼Ôäóve been conducting a lot of simulation work with the concept to help clarify that decision and there?óÔé¼Ôäós a good chance we?óÔé¼Ôäóll see it make an appearance.”

The Drag Reduction Device – also referred to as Double DRS – uses airflow to enhance the rear wing stalling effect at high speed to reduce drag.

It is particularly useful at circuits like Spa which have very long straights. However it is difficult to tune as it must not operate when a driver is tackling a very high-speed corner, such as Spa’s Eau Rouge or Blanchimont.

Permane said the team will do everything they can to enhance the performance of the car between now and next week’s race:

“Although we have had a decent gap of four weeks between races, two of those are eliminated by the enforced factory shutdown. This still leaves two weeks of course; a period of time sufficient to bring a few new parts to the table as we would normally do in such a gap.

“The advantage we have with Spa being so close geographically is that we can be working on the cars back at Enstone right up until the Tuesday night before the race, and still have sufficient time to get them to the circuit ready for work on Thursday morning. We?óÔé¼Ôäóve got several updates coming up ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ both mechanical and aerodynamic ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ so we?óÔé¼Ôäóre confident of making another step forward.”

I’m wondering what the difference is between this and the F-duct, they used that through those corners with no trouble. I’d say Pouhon is a more important corner to have it inactive, that’s a 5th/6th gear(?) corner and much more downforce dependant.

For clarification, is this just a passive effect at high speed, or is it linked to the DRS system?

In Silverstone when Kimi used the PDRS it was actually the slower package in qualifying. Their normal package is better for qualifying. They might get the PDRS to work but it will properly not help for qualifying.

I think this concept has proven to be a waste of time. Even at SPA, the highspeed corners prevent the system from being used enough to make up an advantage. It’s not really resources well spend. At this stage, Lotus should either use it, so they can perfect it for next year, or scrap the idea all together and spend the time on the 2014 car.

Euh Keith? Why would you think they can’t use DRD at eau rouge or blanchimont? Back in 2010 they ran the 2 with a stalled rear wing, and last year and the year before they ran blanchimont with DRS activated.

The problem situates at Pouhon. They can’t take that corner flat out and have to break before entry, yet is still a fairly high speed corner. There they need the downforce.

“However it is difficult to tune as it must not operate when a driver is tackling a very high-speed corner, such as Spaâ€™s Eau Rouge or Blanchimont.”

Would it be within the rules to have a switch that allows the drivers to keep this double-drs from activating? I’m mean some kind of lock/un-lock switch. If used, the driver wouldn’t be changing any aspect of the car, you might call it semi-passive then.